Men of Worth

I told a number of people, not everyone but anyone I was in contact with for the past week, that I was going to a concert with my grandma tonight. My parents also came. The band is called "Men of Worth", there are two men, one is Scottish and the other Irish. They play Celtic and folk music and have been doing so for the past 25 years.

I recommend them to anyone. My family bought a couple of their Cd's. I would have but I'm trying to be smart with my money and not spend what I really don't have.

If you like Celtic and folk then you will love them. They are funny, traditional and have amazing voices and musical talent. If you don't but like trying new things, they are good to try out.

I saw them at the Benicia Historical Museum. It is a lovely place with an amazing Boy Scouts museum. They have all sorts of things from the beginning of scouts in the area and through history. They have a large collection of manuals, patches and other historical items. Also, there is a beautiful backyard area with a fountain and garden. It was lovely. The concert had a packed house but we were over an hour early so we got the best seats in the house. And, thanks to my Grammy's handicap parking, we also had the best parking space.

I don't know if I can but I'll try on Sunday to borrow the Cd's and post a couple songs here. If not, I will post them on facebook and you will simply have to check there to get a taste of the music.

Pillow Fight

Looks like I'm going to have to change things up a bit.  I am switching today with Wednesday so I can post this update with an interesting thing I ran into today.  Then on Wednesday I will post the conclusion to the latest story I've been working on.

So today I was in San Fransisco with my sister, her boyfriend and our friend Steve.  I was going to take the ferry home but missed the boat.  I wouldn't have missed the boat if we hadn't tried to have dinner at Johnny Rockets first.  That was a fiasco seeing as we were trying for a sit down but it was so crowded that by the time we got our food we had to take it to go.  Even then, I missed the boat.  So I had to walk 2 miles to get to the ferry terminal where the bus would be stopping.  The good thing is, the ticket I bought worked for both the ferry and the bus.  As I was walking from pier 41 Steve caught up with me.  He decided to walk with me and then would walk back to the hotel after I was on the bus.  While we were walking we passed a group of teenagers carrying generic white pillows.  We figured that there was probably a sleep over going on.  Then we passed more people carrying pillows.  They were people of different ages, all carrying white pillows.  Was there a protest for Valentines Day?  Was it a "massive" sleep over?  Was it coincidence?  Was it a joke and we were out of the loop?  After I got on the bus, as we were pulling out, the drive announced, "On you're left you will see a pillow fight."  Sure enough there were people hitting each other with pillows.  Then after the bus turned around I saw the plaza.  It was filled with a hoard of people all hitting each other with pillows.  There was fluff and feathers everywhere, so thick in some areas that it looked like snow.  I had to tell people.  I sent out a number of texts and then called my mom.  I asked her to google "Pillow" and "San Fransisco".  She did and came up with an event page.  Apparently there was an advertised event that anyone could come and join the pillow fight that would start at 6pm.  The only rule was that you could only hit people with a pillow if they were carrying a pillow themselves.  I then received a text from a friend of mine who told me that San Fransisco did this every Valentines Day and that it was a HUGE event.  I could definitely see it was quite the event.  It was random, funny, crazy and unique.  So unique in fact that I had to change up my days to post this blog today.

Reading

Some people have asked, what are some good books for light reading.  Well I have my biased being that I am in to fantasy, but I like a variety. 

So here are some recommendations...

• Fantasy:
• anything by Terry Brooks, especially "The Sword of Shannara" or "The Magic Kingdom For Sale/Sold" series.
• His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik - this series has some great historical background and it is an amazing piece of literature.
• The Lightning Thief and other books by Rick Riordan - these are a good read for kids as well, probably ages 8 and up would be my guess.
• Improving Self:
• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
• Positive Discipline - good for people with kids or planning on having kids or working with kids.
• Sometimes the Magic Works by Terry Brooks
• How to Win Friends and Influence People
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - still reading this but already I'm hooked
• Sci-Fi
• Anything by Ray Bradbury some of my favorites "The Martian Chronicles" and "Fahrenheit 451". Also, "1984" by George Orwell.
• Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" series.  This is an amazing piece of literature, the authors writing is captivating and believable and simply sucks you in to the story.
• Random Others
• Runaway Jury by John Grisham
• The Green Mile by Stephen King

I'm sure there are many others but these are the ones that really stick out in my mind.  It's great to have some recommendations to choose from, hope some of these captivate those of you who were needing a good read.

Bad Poetry

Last night was a full night of half asleep, bad poetry.  I thought about and even planned on posting some here just for the sake of posting.  Then I realized just how much work this poetry needed just to even be a little comprehending.  I have about 10 pages of hand written crap all over my notebook.  I'm organizing to some degree.  I'm only partially cleaning up and then should be hopefully adding the poems to this blog at a later date.  Even so, it will still remain bad poetry, but it is still poetry.  I haven't written a poem since middle school. 

Interesting enough, after middle school, all I could write was songs.  Poems didn't flow for me, even though the songs could be read as poems.  Then, around 2004 or 2005 I lost my regular song inspiration and haven't felt it since.  Since then, I have been writing chapters to my books but then about a year ago I stopped even doing that.

Now, I have a goal to write a blog a day.  Apperantly my inspiration for poetry has returned, we shall see if the others return as well.

In Memory of Mr. Bell

MSNBC Article Mon., Jan. 18, 2010: 

Taco Bell founder dies at age 86

Glen W. Bell launched Taco Bell in 1962 in Los Angeles area

Glen W. Bell, Jr.

 

 

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. - Glen W. Bell Jr., an entrepreneur best known as the founder of the Taco Bell chain, has died. He was 86.

Bell died Sunday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, according to a statement posted Monday on the Taco Bell Web site.

The Irvine-based company did not release a cause of death.

"Glen Bell was a visionary and innovator in the restaurant industry, as well as a dedicated family man," Greg Creed, president of Taco Bell, said in the statement.

Bell launched his first restaurant, called Bell's Drive-In, in 1948 in San Bernardino after seeing the success of McDonald's. His restaurant sought to take advantage of Southern California's car culture by serving hamburgers and hot dogs through drive-in windows.

The World War II veteran next helped establish Taco Tias in Los Angeles, El Tacos in the Long Beach area, and Der Wienerschnitzel, a national hot dog chain.

Bell launched Taco Bell in 1962 in Downey after cutting ties with his business partners and quickly expanding around Los Angeles.

He sold the first Taco Bell franchise in 1964. In 1978, Bell sold his 868 Taco Bell restaurants to PepsiCo for $125 million in stock.

Taco Bell is now owned by Yum! Brands and is the largest Mexican fast-food chain in the nation, serving more than 36.8 million consumers each week in more than 5,600 U.S. locations.

Bell is survived by his wife, Martha, three sisters, two sons, a daughter and four grandchildren.

A private funeral is planned.

[I posted this late but I still wanted to have a little something for the guy who created Taco Bell]

Sandra Bullock: only for those who care

(Technically this is yesterdays post, but certain events prevented me from being available to post from my computer...no this post is not about that =P...)

Before I get into the meat of this post or should I say, the debate, I would like to put a small plug for the movie "The Proposal" I believe that the character chemistry was amazing, the acting well done and the storyline well written. A good romantic comedy to lighten up any day.

That said I feel that this would be where you either stop reading or continue just out of curiosity. If you complain for having wasted the 5 minutes it takes to read this than it is your own fault. As a heads up I have made a small disclamer:

> If you do not like Sandra Bullock you will not want to read any further.

> If you do not like Romantic Comedies, you will not want to read any further.

> If you did not like either the movie "The Lake House" or "Premonition", you will not want to read any further.

> If you have not seen either movie, you will not want to read any further as this post will include spoilers.

> If you liked the ending of either movie, you will not want to read further.

> If you could care less about either movie than reading further will be excruciating torture to your body and soul.

> If you enjoyed both movies but found a slight mishap with the ending of both movies than you are probably "Tina" and would then read further. If you are in fact "Tina" and do read further you will still find this to be a waste of your time as we have already discussed and agreed upon the response.

The debate is simple. In the movie "Premonition" the guy dies. In the movie "The Lake House" the guy lives. The way these stories are written, this seems backwards. If you pay close attention to the storylines you will find that this is true. If you actually read this far and care about the subject but don't agree you are welcome to debate. Otherwise the decision stands that both are fantastic movies but the endings just happened to be mixed up.

22 Things I knew, learned and experianced

1. Running errands with Kelley and helping her mom out who just got out of surgery for her wrist and arm. She is in a lot of pain but will hopefully be better off because of it. Team work and companionship, it was nice to be together.

2. Sodoku is the devil incarnate. Life was good and we were all hanging out, tina, kelley and I, and then I saw a game that I was invited to. I got on and it was horrible. I couldn't find anything and I refused help and ruined the fun of hanging out. That is why I prefer to avoid applications.

3. All dressed up and no place to go. Since I ruined our evening, or at least put a sad close to what would have already been the end of the evening. Tina and I were in the car. Tina really wanted to go out and have fun. I wanted to as well but was exhausted from not having much sleep for the week. We texted and called people but no one was available. So of course we went to Tina's house played skippo and watched Psych. Fun but not going to the club like Tina had been hoping. I'll try to be more prepared for the next weekend, it's just been a while since we've been in a "let's go do something fun mood".

4. Oh what a beautiful morning. Well maybe not quite beautiful, it was more overcast and ordinary. We were preparing to leave for a fun bbq and party but then got called to clean house. There were supposed to be some family/friends coming to visit Tina's parents. Mopping, vacuuming and other such. (Tina was working and I was attempting to watch Psych with the sounds of vacuum in the background. She was soooo inconsiderate while I was lazily waiting for Tina to finish.) I would like to say that I did shake out the carpets in the backyard. Then buying plastic for the tablecloth and going to Sally's Beauty Shop for the first time.

5. Money, money, everywhere...but not in my pocket. So I saw the amazing wax kit that Tina has (slightly smaller kit) that was an amazing price. If I had the money it would have been worth it. I'll say that once you wax you never want to shave again....it's just not worth it.

6. Out on the road. Gathering the address, maps, gps and getting to Amy's house (Tina's sister). We gather Marianne, Xaden and the van. The cool thing about the van is the hidy hole in the middle. A place to keep belongings (or dead bodies...dum dum dum....) It made the ride more enjoyable to have leg room and imaginative thoughts of what to do with a hidy hole in the center of a van.

7. On the road again. First we stop to pick up Ben, then we can all be ready to leave....except, there was a pit stop. Safeway! Buy some sandwiches and drinks. ummm.....drinks? How frustrating it is to find that every single cooler in the store is out of water. The clerks and such said that they haven't restocked yet. Then we try to find Funyan's. What store decides to no longer sell funyans. Oh, wait! There was a large bag of flaming hot funyans. No can do, but wait again. A value bag that contains funyans and fire hot cheetos. Sigh, can't win 'em all.

8. Asian or white. So according to Ben's hypothosis there is something about Asian's and Funyuns and Toyota's. He also thinks there is something about white's and boats, and RV's. My guess on the funyuns is that they are similar to and have a similar consistancy to some other foods that asians eat all the time. That is just my guess, as to the boats, I got nothing. So the question is...I love Funyuns and Toyota is my fav car of choice. I also love all phillipino foods I've tried, which is unusual for a white person. So what am I?

9. And so we arrive. I was worried about being an outcast. I'm not one of the Demesa girls and so only knew the twins through Tina. I did hang out with them but it was a long time ago. I entered a little self conscious. I smiled and hung back. After a few hours I realized that it was the same. We are friends and still friends. I'm so glad I got to see David and Daniel again.

10. A fish out of water. I have been going insane. All this year I have been wanting to swim since march when we had that first heat wave. I guess that's not all this year but whatever. That was the same time I decided it would be a good idea to cut half my hair off. Yes, I did do it myself and yes, it did look horrible. I think that the hairdo is a bit better now. So, as most people know, I don't do well with heat. Cutting off my hair is a drastic measure when I start to go crazy with delirium and heat. Because of the heat I have been yearning for a dip in the pool, lucky for me there happened to be a pool at the party. The sad thing would be that the one day I have access to a pool is the same day the sun decides to not be as hot and the same day that I am visiting friends I haven't seen in years. But a pool.......

11. A bruise, a crack, a break....breaking down. I couldn't take it anymore, staring at the clear crisp water and finally Tina was up for it. We just had to get in. We changed and jumped in full force. Ice water brushed over us like a frozen wave. We swam, shivered, chatted, twirled, relaxed and flipped our way to euphoric peace. Ah the joys of the water.

12. Then came the kids. Alex, this cute little 7 year old blond joined our party. She was fun and loved to swim as well. Xaden joined as well. Tina held Xaden and I spent time with Alex. We all had fun playing, splashing and laughing. Alex clung like a shivery little cat. She would not let me go. I told her that we needed to get out of the water, it's pretty cold. She told me that it wasn't cold hugging me. I must be pretty warm blooded.

13. Leaving the drenched paradise, Alex continued to cling to me. I carried her to a chair, sat down and had someone bring me a towel. She warmed up pretty quick as we cuddled. Then I tried to get up and change out of my wet suit but Alex continued to follow me and would not let me do anything. Instead we ended up playing catch with a tiny blow up ball she called her beach ball. We played a while until I was released to change back into my jeans and t-shirt.

14. While sitting around and chatting I relearned something I knew when Xaden was born. His name is Xaden Ray. put it together and it's X-Ray. How cute.

15. I started to get a migraine, what do I do? I didn't want to ruin the evening and leave. I didn't want to sleep and miss hang out time. So, I did the next best thing, I drank a Pepsi. I know, I don't really like it but it did the trick. It kept my migraine at bay for the entire evening and it didn't hit until we crashed at Tina's. How blessed was that?

16. We finally meet. I met David's boyfriend, Cory and Danial's boyfriend, Maurice. They are fun, good looking, guys.

17. Mooch. A fun dice game where you try to get to 10,000 points, mooch off of other's points and win the money. You try to get 3 of a kind for that many hundred points, example 3 two's would be 200 points. Ones are worth one hundred and fives are worth fifty. You roll and save and roll remaining dice as long as each roll adds to your points. You can stop any time to keep the points or keep going. If you keep going and a roll does not give you any points, then you lose it all. It is so fun to play with a large group of people.

18. Kung Fu distraction. While playing Mooch, Kung Fu Panda and the cartoon furious five played. One of my favorite movies and the cartoon was one I had never seen before. It was a distraction but fun to enjoy at the same time.

19. Marcus! After fun and games the night was still young. We wanted some one on one time without the huge group of family, friends and acquaintances and whoever. A nice small group of friends just kicking it at a nice apartment. Oh and did I mention guitar hero and domino's? Yea, it was great.

20. One thing I've known but still constantly surprises me is that I can be in a room filled with the smoke of 420 but if I am in a large space with only one cigarette my lungs close up. Hmmm...how strange is that.

21. Body Art: Cory, David's boyfriend, has a tattoo all along both arms and his chest and stomach. It's not some shoddy, half done tattoo's. No. This is a work of art. It looks like a masterpiece painting rolled out. He has a phoenix on his stomach with the feathers up and around. Amazing. I felt jealous.

22. Driving. So I enjoyed being the driver for the trip back. I loved the peace of the early morning night, the empty road and the exhausted unconscious people in the car. The only part was not becoming a unconscious person myself. Well I was awake and we got home alive and safe. What an awesome weekend. So awesome Tina and I didn't get up till close to 11am, now that is insane.

Mysterious Van; What if?

Now there is a real story brewing. On the way to Institute my brother Steven and I saw a van. It was a non-descript white van, with no definite markings. The unusual thing was the two sets of long, heavy duty antenas sticking up from the back. It could have been an under cover news van, FBI, CIA or who knows. It could also have been linked to the procession of cop cars I saw earlier. Everything is pretty hush hush. The traffic on the freeway was stopped because an alian ship, vessel, sighting or portal to the fantacy realm was opened. When this happened of course the government would want to be involved, but they weren't allowed. The alians or magical creatures have spies in many places and the ability to control minds and bodies. They had control of those cops, that was why they came out evenly paced and in a straight line. Now the van comes to cover up any radio waves, news reports etc... If this blog is found I may be taken in for questioning or to have my mind erased. Hey it could happen.

Cops on the 80

Driving back from fairfield today I saw a large procession of cops going east bound on the 80. East bound traffic was completly stopped right before one of the on ramps a little after I passed the entrance to hwy 12. I saw so many cops going in a straight line in the middle lane lights blazing. When I started counting I counted 50 cop cars before I lost count. So there were more than 50 cop cars. Was there a visiting dignitary? Was it a funeral?

If anyone knows why this was going on it would be good to know. When I find out I will add it in.